Facing Legislative Blow, PETA’s “Animal House of Horrors” Killed 88 Percent of Dogs and Cats in its Possession in 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) released its yearly review of the appalling euthanasia record of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). In 2014 alone, PETA killed 2,324 cats and dogs, an average of more than 6 per day and an increase of roughly 30 percent from 2013. This represents 88 percent of all pets PETA took into its shelter throughout the year. Since 1998, 33,514 animals have died at the hands of PETA.

Communities in the Eastern Shore of Virginia recently took to the streets to protest PETA after a PETA worker allegedly abducted a family’s dog named Maya, killed it, and returned to the owner with a fruit basket as compensation. Now the Virginia legislature is taking action to close PETA’s charnel house, considering legislation to define an animal shelter as “a facility operated for the purpose of finding permanent adoptive homes and facilitating other lifesaving outcomes for animals.” PETA’s facility surely doesn’t qualify: Only 1.5 percent of dogs and cats left from PETA’s “shelter” for a forever home.

Will Coggin, director of research at CCF, said PETA takes hypocrisy to a whole new level.

“This delusional animal rights group is talking out of both sides of its mouth – on one side preaching animal rights, while on the other signing a death warrant for 88 percent of cats and dogs in its care. PETA should be called a slaughterhouse, not an animal shelter.”

Despite its $47 million budget, PETA fails to find homes for the van loads of animals it kills. PETA President Ingrid Newkirk previously indicated to The Virginian-Pilot that the animal rights group could stop killing pets. Of course, it would mean cutting down on press stunts and celebrity photo shoots: “We could become a no-kill shelter immediately. It means we wouldn’t do as much work.”

PETA’s kill numbers come from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), which requires such annual disclosures to be made. Most animals don’t even get a chance: A 2010 inspection conducted by a VDACS veterinarian of animal custody records discovered that 84 percent of the animals PETA took in were killed within 24 hours.

Coggin concluded, “PETA’s so-called ‘shelter’ might as well be called a slaughterhouse. For an organization that once disgustingly compared the treatment of farm animals to the Holocaust, you’d think PETA would avoid the appearance of systematic killing. It’s time Virginia stopped the madness and shuttered PETA’s shelter of horrors for good.”

Founded in 1996, the Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization devoted to promoting personal responsibility and protecting consumer choices. For more information, visit ConsumerFreedom.com.